You can turn back in your Bibles
now to Revelation 2. You also may follow me in your
pastor's commentary. We are in our second consideration
of the seven churches of Asia Minor. We have come to the precious
little portion of Revelation 2, the church at Smyrna. The title of our message is,
Be Thou Faithful Unto Death. In my own judgment, that would
sum up what our Master is saying to his church. May I remind you
that the seven churches to whom he is writing are his church. He bought them with his own blood.
He purchased them by his death on the cross. He redeemed them
by an amazing price. And he dwells among them as is
meant to be comprehended by the first vision, our great high
priest in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. And we are
thankful that the Lord is faithful to remain among His people even
to this hour, are we not? We're thankful that as we are
reading this portion of Scripture, what we are able to ascertain
are these two realities. One is, His presence in the midst
of the candlestick is designed to give us both assurance, assurance
of His presence. Because if He wasn't with us,
we wouldn't be His. It's designed to give us assurance,
assurance. This great high priest whose
ministry is after the order of Melchizedek is functioning as
the present Lord among his people to give us assurance as we go
through this difficult, very difficult life with all of the
challenges that he knew when he called us by his grace, we
would have to endeavor. We have to deal with issues.
We have to deal with challenges. There are burdens that come with
just being a human being, let alone a believer in Christ. And
I don't think a man ought to live on this planet without a
mediator. I don't think you can live well
without Christ as your high priest. I think with the kind of things
that we deal with, ladies and gentlemen, on an everyday basis,
I would go insane if I didn't have someone that I could talk
to and go to. with the issues that confront
me. I don't know how a man or woman can go through a 24-hour
cycle without talking to the Lord of Glory, whose great and
precious promises are, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
How does a man live in this world, a woman, a family, a people live
in this world, this very unpredictable, topsy-turvy world, without a
mediator? And so what I want to make sure
you grasp as we go through the seven churches of Asia Minor
is that his presence will remain there in order to give us assurance
as believers, but also to sustain our sense of accountability before
him. Assurance and accountability. Sometimes we don't know how to
hold those two together. I think in our adolescent and
our pre-adolescent mentality, We want the assurance, don't
we? But we don't always want the accountability. And I think
sometimes when you teach and preach faithfully the word of
God, you hold those two realities before the people of God. And
some people struggle with the exhortation to be accountable
to the one who is accountable for you. I think when we receive
encouragement to obey Christ and to follow Christ, it's designed
to remind us that He was accountable for you when He said yes to the
Father before the world began. That He was accountable to you
when in the fullness of time He assumed a human nature. That
he was accountable to you when he lived a perfectly righteous,
active life before God the Father. And that he was accountable for
you when he hung on Calvary's tree and said, it is finished. That he was accountable for you
when he rose again from the dead and took his seat at the right
hand of his Father to rule over all things for his Father's glory
and your eternal good. That he was being, for you, accountable. And I think that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the only real accountable person that we can trust in in
the whole universe. I think that he's more faithful
to us than we are to him. And I think that his faithfulness
to accomplish our eternal redemption merits at least our listening
to him in a sense of accountability, don't you think? Don't you think
he has a right to tell us what to do? So the idea that our Lord
is just giving out badges of assurance without also giving
out contracts of accountability, let that thought perish. He saved
you for a purpose. And that's what we want to work
through with our second church. Our Lord graciously charged his
people, if you recall, in Ephesus, to live for him. that the essence
of His exhortation to them was not to simply defend the truth
of the Gospel, but to live for His glory. Do you remember that?
You've left your first love. You've done all these things,
but these things you have left off. And His exhortation to them
was to live, to live for His glory. So as to be a means of
drawing sinners to the Savior by the fragrance of a loving
witness concerning the only person in the world who could save their
soul. And as he was exhorting Ephesus to realize that your
call is to be a candlestick, to be a light in the world, he
was calling all of us to our responsibility of being evangelical. And I want to make sure that
we get that. We want to be people who are evangelical. I want to
live in such a way before God that I attract sinners to Christ. I want to be forward in my ability
to share the gospel with people. I don't want to ever fall prey
to simply being comfortable that I'm saved all by myself. I want
to understand the inherent objective of a loving relationship between
God, my father, and myself through the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
you to too. I want you to understand that your love for God and God's
love for you is not a selfish thing. That when you understand
it by apprehending your relationship with Christ, with Christ's relationship
to the Father, it's this. Your love for God and His love
for you is designed to be demonstrable so that people see it and they
covet what you have. Did you get that? That when they
see you enjoying your God, walking with your God, fellowshipping
with your God, growing in the knowledge of your God, serving
your God, happy? Why is she so happy? Because she has a love relationship
with her God. Why is he so content? Because
him and his God are well. And that should attract sinners
to ask the question, how is it that you can be so stable, so
clear headed and so civil in the midst of this crazy mess?
Because I love God, because he first loved me. And I'm enamored
by the love of God. And I want that love of God to
permeate my being and leak out of my pores like an incense so
that people smell the fragrance of the gospel's impact in my
life. And say, what's that? That's
Christ in me, the hope of glory. See, that's what he's saying.
He's saying, listen, don't hide this thing. Because the son didn't
hide it, and the father didn't hide it. It's meant to go public. Listen, when you love somebody,
don't you want people to know it? Yeah, you do. Or else your
love is inferior. Don't tell me you really are
infatuated with someone that you don't want to tell other
people about. That's all he was saying to the church at Ephesus.
Now stop simply defending the truth and get out there and share
it. That's what he meant. And of
course, with the other church, we're going to be dealing with
Pergamos next week. And with Pergamos, he's calling
them to discernment. Some folks don't discern right
from wrong, false doctrine from true doctrine, and they open
up themselves to things that are bad. Pergamos will be told
to learn how to discern truth. Thyatira, he's going to call
that church to correcting an enormous amount of error that's
existing in their church. They were one of the churches
that tolerated heresy. false prophets and false prophetesses
because it was culturally acceptable to be tolerant, much like our
present generation. He's going to tell them, you
got to correct some stuff because if you don't, I'm killing a bunch
of people in the church. Woo. What a savior. So this is what I meant by being
accountable. See, and then he's going to talk to the church at
Sardis and he's going to say that, Hey Sardis, I know you
have a reputation, but you're dead. You need revival. And then he's gonna finally speak
to the church at Philadelphia and say, hey, be patient. You
stay on point, you're doing well, be patient. And finally, he's
gonna speak to Laodicea and say, listen, I'm on the outside. I've been knocking on your door
for a long time. You've been doing church without
me for umpteen years. Let me in. That's what we're
gonna get at. But today he's dealing with the
church at Smyrna. And saints, here is the exhortation
from Christ to the church at Smyrna. Are you ready? Smyrna,
I'm calling you to die for me. Smyrna, I'm calling you to die
for me. You see, all the churches have
a different design, but they have the same destiny, don't
they? He's the Lord of the church, and he's telling this church,
your assignment, Smyrna, is to die. Now, Saints, again, this
is not something that's beyond the call of duty, is it? It's
not part of the gospel package that we are to take up our cross
and be ready to suffer for Christ even unto death. So this call
to this small little church in a portion of Asia Minor we'll
talk about in a moment is not some unusual calling. Really,
when you become a witness for Jesus, And we're learning this
as we're learning a little bit more about the Greek language.
The word witness is matour, from which we get the term what? Martyr.
To be a witness for Christ is to be ready to die for Christ. That's just a, that's a fundamental
of witnessing. And so this church's murder is
going to serve for us as a faithful congregation committed to the
cause of the gospel and is now facing serious troubles. And
in the midst of those serious troubles, what does the Lord
of the church say to Smyrna? Die for me. Which brings us then
to our first point in your outline. Who is Smyrna? Who was Smyrna? Well, if we had
our map back up, you would be able to see that Smyrna was just
a little bit north of Ephesus, just a little ways up the road
concerning their region being in the portions of Asia Minor,
a little ways up from Ephesus. Northern Turkey, we would call
it. It was a great city. You guys see that there. Northern
Turkey way up on the region over by the agency there They were
a coastal city and they also were very populous in terms of
their numbers somewhere around 250,000 people at that time remember
again children of God we live in a world of above six to seven
billion people at that time there might have been maybe close to
a quarter of a billion people at that time in the days of our
Lord so the numbers of cities in today compared to then is
remarkably different. We talk about 250,000 in the
Bay Area, just in California alone, just in fact in the Bay
Area, in Northern California, in our Bay Area is 7 million
people. So we're multiplied larger than
Smyrna. You guys understand what I'm
getting at in terms of scale here. But Smyrna was considered
a fairly large populous city. It was a thoroughfare of business
of all kinds, as you can see, because they were by the coast.
There were a lot of merchant activity and therefore multiple
ethnic groups were passing through Smyrna. Smyrna was very popular,
as were many of the Asia Minor cities that Rome had adopted
as its representative. It was very popular for emperor
worship, the worship of the emperors. They would build statues to these
emperors like the Roman Titus or the Roman Nero. In this context,
it was the Roman Caesar Tiberius Caesar, whose ministry and life
existed around 46 BC through AD 37, which means Tiberius Caesar
would have been the Caesar living and ruling at the time that our
Lord was born and was crucified. They had a statue erected to
him, and the Christians and the Jews and the pagans were all
obliged to bow down to the statue and acknowledge that Caesar was
Lord. And that there was a certain
practice that they had to engage in. In order to receive a receipt
that you might be able to do commerce and work and business,
you had to burn incense. Sign a little prescription that
on such and such date, you actually bow down to Caesar, burnt the
incense to him and received a certificate to allow you to coexist and function
in all of the practical matters of life. Well, obviously the
Christians were notorious for saying no to this legislation
and proposition. They would not bow down. And
so Smyrna, this small city of Smyrna, this local region of
Smyrna, were believers who were devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ
in such as such a way that they found themselves suffering for
the cause of Christ. And that's the nature of verses
eight and nine. Listen to what it says unto the
angel of the church at Smyrna. Right. These things set the first
and the last, which was dead and is alive. I know your works. And what? Tribulation. So now again, you notice how
our master is resident in the church? And that one of the first
things he says besides giving his insignia, his characteristics,
certain attributes relative to their needs, we'll talk about
that in a moment. One of the first things he says to the church
is, I know what you're going through. Weedle is the term that
means to be concerned about, aware of, having all the data
necessary to be fully informed as to what you're going through.
It's one thing for a person to see what you're going through.
It's another thing for them to care. Is that true? I mean, people
can know what you're going through, and you can be very keenly aware
that though they know, they don't care. Our master is using a term
that says, not only do I know, but I care. I have deeply penetrated
into what you're going through. I have assessed it. I have evaluated. And here's what I want to let
you know. I know your troubles. I know the difficulty that you
are going through. I know the struggles that you
are going through. I know every little detail. We're going to
see that more fully in some of the other churches. And isn't
it comforting to know, child of God, that God really does
know what we're going through. You better receive that. Now
mark this now. It's comforting to know that
God knows when we are in the midst of that trouble, because
when we're in the midst of that trouble, the one thing we are
struggling with is, does God really know? Does he really care? And to receive a word that says,
not only do I know, but I care, is designed again to give them
comfort and assurance. After all, the people of Smyrna
are being put in jail they're losing their homes, they're losing
their jobs, their families are being divided, and they are systematically
being killed continuously. That's a bad situation to live
in. And then you're a Christian, and so the mind is playing games,
the mind is struggling through, has the Lord abandoned us? Have
we done something wrong where he has cut us off from his covenant
blessings? You may not think that, but I
would. I would struggle if I was observing the church in this
city being the targeted, the strategic target of political
and religious assault and that we were being picked off one
by one by one from the leadership on down. The church at Smyrna
was one of those churches that had the history of its bishops
being persecuted. Some of you may know a little
bit of church history. You may have heard of the name
Ignatius. He was the Bishop of Antioch. He had a real close
relationship with Polycarp, which was one of the bishops of Smyrna.
And they both had a strong relationship with the final apostle of the
New Testament, and that is the apostle John. So these bishops
who were preachers and leaders of the church at this time, many
of them were being picked off Killed you see if you want to
cause a church to really start to disseminate and lose its hope
kill its leaders That's what's going on around the world today
in many of our anti-christian countries our leaders are being
picked up and taken away because if you can kill the leaders you
can destroy the motivation the Enthusiasm the commitment you
guys hear what I'm saying. Well after all Jesus said it
If they've done it to me, they'll do it to you. Smite the shepherd
and the sheep shall what? That's the goal and methodology
of the devil. So he always goes after the leadership because
if he can destroy the leadership, disqualify the leadership, cause
the leadership to lose its effectiveness, it can dismantle the church.
The goal of the enemy and his maniacal, mad, insane objective
is to be the head over all things. to the destruction of every other
contention for a position of authority. And so the church
at Smyrna is experiencing right now that little bitty struggle
as they are denying emperor worship. And I am recalling the words
of our master in the gospel of Matthew and in the gospel of
Luke. Fear not, little flock. Do not fear. What a word in the
midst of persecution. It is your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. What a word. And what he's saying
is, don't fear the trouble that you're going through. You're
going to go through it. Don't fear it. Because your father
is dead set on blessing you with all of the benefits of the kingdom
of God. But you're going to have to go through the trouble. You're
going to have to endure the suffering. You're going to have to take
the hit. Christ and so this is who Smyrna is ladies and gentlemen
Smyrna is a suffering church Smyrna is a church that is faithful
to the gospel, but Smyrna has been called to Persecution to
difficulty now who is Christ? It's our second point to Smyrna
You know, we call him that is the Lord Jesus Christ the Alpha
and the Omega We call him the first the last. We call them the beginning and
the end. We say that Christ is all. We mean by that is that everything
that Christ is, he is for us and that every issue in our life,
there's something in his person or work that actually corresponds
to that issue. That there's not a trouble that
you and I go through that Christ doesn't have a specific remedy
for in his person or his work. And as we are looking at the
attributes of Christ as they are depicted in his high priestly
and kingly role, here is another set of attributes for which he
now describes himself to the church at Smyrna. It's as if
he would show up to each seven church, each of the seven churches,
knock on the door, and when the door is opened up, he has a different
outfit on, a different attire, a different appearance, consistent
with the needs of that church. That's a good savior, isn't it?
And so on this occasion, here's what he says. Notice what the
text tells us over in verse eight. And unto the church of Smyrna
write, these things saith the what? First and the last, which
was dead and is alive. This is the way he wants Smyrna
to contemplate him as he communes with her of her issues. Here's
what he wants Smyrna to know. I'm the one that started this
thing and I'm the one going to finish it. Listen, Smyrna, don't
you be concerned with the threats and fears of temporal judgment. The devil didn't start it. The
political powers of Rome didn't start it. I started this world. All things began with my word.
In the beginning was the word. And what he's saying to the church
at Smyrna is, I'm going to close it out with my word. And I like
that too, because see, in the throes of troubles when you're
going through trials, when you're in the middle of them, the hardest
thing to do is to remember how it used to be. And the other
difficult thing is to be confident how it's going to end up. In
the middle of the trial, you need a God who reminds you that
He started this thing, that He called you by His grace, that
He quickened you by His Spirit, that He established your feet
upon the rock, that He promised to be with you, that He sealed
you with His Holy Ghost, that He gave you His Spirit to walk
with you through your journey. He's already told you He's the
author and finisher of your faith. He's already at the end of the
finish line. He's calling you to come to Him,
letting you know He's the last word in the universe. No one
has authority to change your destiny. You need to hear that
when you're in the hospital, on the sickbed, looking up. You
need to hear that when you're broke. You need to hear that
when people let you down. You need to hear that when you
get fearful and anxious and struggling mentally. You need to hear that
when you have failed. that he's the same God that called
you, that also will keep you. That's what he's saying to this
church. He's telling them, do not be moved by the false authority
of the pagan religious assault that you're suffering through.
We're going to talk about that in a moment. Because see, the battle is in
the mind. The battle is in the mind. Who is speaking to you? Who's controlling your thoughts?
Who is swaying you to the left or the right? Who has authority
over you? Am I making some sense? Who can
speak powerfully and authoritatively in your life and get you to believe
this, that, or the other? If I'm Christ's, if I'm God's,
and if I'm upheld by the Spirit of God, ought not I to remember
God's Word in the midst of my troubles? So stay with me for
a moment, because this is what David said. Now, David had trouble.
I keep telling my brothers, I love me some David. See, David was
one of those real kings. We've got paper kings. We've got fictitious kings. We've got rulers that put on
facades. We've got leaders that don't
keep it real. See, you probably wouldn't be
able to hang with David, because some days David was all right,
and other days David was not all right. But with God, he was
always all right. But but see like so on some of
the days when he was not all right, guess what David would
say, Lord, remember the word unto your servant upon which
you have caused me to hope. Do you know what that means?
That means he was so not all right. He couldn't remember the
word himself. So but he did remember to ask
God to remember the word unto him. Lord, I forgot that word
that corresponded to this issue. Will you bring it back to a brother
so that I can place my feet on that promise and hold on till
you show up? See, David was real with it.
He was real with it. And so, you know, we want leaders
to always be polished, And we want their suits to be right.
No stains, no ketchup stains, no mustard stains. We don't want
the tie on sideways. We get all bent out of shape
if their image is all messed up. Some days David was just
walking around with a little white ephod on. And you know
how undignified that is. A little white ephod on, because
he, praising the Lord, forgot the people watching him. He forgot
the people watching him. You remember that? I'm just giving
you a little insight into the psychology of the greatest king
in Israel because he was David was the greatest king in Israel,
but David had days where he forgot people were watching it You know
we do that and then he look up and everybody look at me wife
having fits David look at you acting like a fool and Then he
didn't do right by her. He shut up. He got rid of her
That wouldn't be politically correct. Here's my point David
loved God and And God loved David. That's what his name means. Beloved. Beloved. Beloved. And he would be honest with God
about his struggles. Child of God, you will triumph.
You will triumph if you're honest with God. Make sure your religion
is not so nice and neat and tidy that it's not true. And troubles
will purge you of that fictitious facade of a nice and neat, tidy
theology that does not correspond with the facts. You understand
what I'm saying? And so as he's speaking to the
church at Smyrna, he's letting them know what you are going
through, I've been through. Where you are going, I've already
gone. Not only am I the first and the
last, watch this, but I was dead and I am alive forevermore. What great and precious promises
that come out of that. Who is Christ to Smyrna? He is
the risen Lord. Who is Christ to Smyrna? He's
the triumphant Savior. Who is Christ to Smyrna? He's
the resurrection and the life. You heard it before. John 14
verse 19, he made it very clear, because I live, you shall also
live. Isn't that what he said? That's
my confidence. And then he said it again in
Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4. If you then be risen with
Christ, seek those things that are above where Christ is. Set
your affection on things above because watch this now, you are
hidden Christ. Your life is hidden Christ in
God. Christ is your life. Now, you
know, that all sounds good in an air-conditioned church. Isn't that right? That all sounds
good in this nice air-conditioned church. But say that to my brothers
and sisters that's running through the jungles and the forests and
the wilderness of third world countries because they're being
attacked. This is why the just shall live by what? Faith. Faith
is critical to this component. He is the risen Lord, triumphant
Savior, resurrection and life. And He is their life now. And
what He's saying to them, listen, what you're going through, the
experiences, the hits, I'm going to talk about that in a moment.
The hits you're going through, ladies and gentlemen, do not
define the substance of who you are by what you're going through.
Do not ever define the qualitative substance of who you are in Christ
by what you're going through, because the world will do that.
The world will measure your quality of work by what you are going
through. But do not measure yourself by
what you are going through, but rather whose you are. Be sure
to understand that if you can grasp That you are everything
that christ is because he was everything for you Then it doesn't
matter if you lose everything in the world You are still as
our elder put it precious in the sight of the lord Precious
in the sight of the lord is the death of all his saints So our
master is trying to get at them. He's saying, listen now, now
make sure that you don't let these circumstances define you
because they will. I'm going to work this for a
moment just for a few of you because I got a few honest people
in the house. Your circumstances will define you one way or the
other. Now watch this. Let me see if I can help you with this.
Let's say God gave you a year of really good health, really
good finances, where he gave you just the grace to make a
lot of good choices, right? And you're feeling like, you
know, the Lord is blessing, right? You know how we do. The Lord
is blessing, man. And intuitively, you will draw
this conclusion that your self-worth corresponds to the favorable
circumstances you are going through. You won't say it, but you'll
act like it. Watch this. Psychologically and
emotionally, you'll have more confidence. You'll be more optimistic. You'll be more inclined to engage
in challenging decision-making, because you're all that. But
what you're doing is you're basically living an existential life as
I've taught you before Existentialism is when you define yourself by
your circumstances or the events around you rather than intrinsically
Understanding your worth based upon your relationship So that
if you were like Lazarus the beggar over against the rich
man Lazarus was infinitely more wealthy rich and precious before
God than ever that rich man was Are you hearing me? This will
get into my brief little argument that I have over against the
Word of Faith movement that says to be poor is to be cursed. Not
only is He the risen Lord, triumphant Savior and resurrection and life,
He is their life now as He is ours. Galatians chapter 2 verse
20, I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I what? Live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. See, Paul was able to reconcile
it. You know what he was saying?
He said, my life is Christ. All that Christ is, I am. And
what this does is it offsets all of the negative circumstances
that he went through. He was able to actually reconcile
his difficulties with an affirmation of who he was in Christ. You
know what he also said? For me to live is Christ. What
an ethic. Will you get that? For me to
live It's Christ. What he did then was to take
everything he went through and brought it into subjection to
this one truth. How does this correspond with
the glory of God? And then you know how he closed?
To die is to what? Gain. See now, when you have
an ethic like that, no one can stop you. No one can stop you
when your modus operandi, Your ethic of life is for me to live
is Christ and to die is gain. You kill me and I cash in. Isn't that cold? See, that's
why I love Paul too. See, if I can get started talking
about Paul. Paul was cold like that too. This is why he had
such an alacrity he had such a capacity to hang out with Jews
and Gentiles and pagans and Legalists and self-righteous folk because
he understood the objective was to get past the facade that people
be holding up And reach real sinners if I can get a hold to
a real sinner. I don't care if you're a politician
I don't care if you're a lawyer. I don't care if you're a pauper
if I can get a hold to a real sinner I can show you a real
Savior And that's how Paul was. See, he had a scandalous ethic
too. It was scandalous. He had a scandalous ethic too.
And yet, saints, this is what the writer to the church of Smyrna
is laying down when he says, I am the first, the last, he
that was dead and is alive forevermore. And he says, I know your tribulation.
That moves me to our next point in our outline. What he knows,
what we are going through, point number Three, Christ knows what
you are going through, what? And more. Christ knows what you're
going through and more. We'll run through these fairly
quickly. Think about this. He says, I know your what? Works. So because this is the inspired
word of God, we have to pay attention to that statement because he
initiates his conversation with all seven churches on that statement
right there. All seven churches, guess how
he opens up? I know your works. You got that? So there's some
inferences we have to draw from that. And here's what we have
to draw. Every church that Christ raises up and establishes through
the preaching of the gospel and the faithful proclamation of
the word of God is a church that is identified with Christ in
terms of their life. So the word work here can be
practically understood as your life. Okay, you guys, are you
following me? I know your life. I can expand
on that, but contextually, I want you to understand when he says,
I know your words, here's what he's saying. I know the life
that you are living as a consequence of having believed on me, trusted
me as your savior, and now is living a public demonstrable
witness as a local church. I know your life. Are you following
me so far? I know your life. It's deeper than that. It's deeper
than that, but it's as practical as that. What that means is when
a person comes to Christ, and they receive Christ and they
become saved and they're baptized and brought into the church.
It's not like Christ doesn't always see you. Sure, he does.
But in the sense that you're part of the covenant family,
now he knows how you live. I know how you live. I know your
work. And then he would be speaking
more specifically in terms of the role and the ministry of
the church collectively, right? I know your works, that is in
the plural form, that is those of you who are GBC, those of
you who are the church at Ephesus, those of you who are the church
at Smyrna, I know your works. The Greek term is ergon, and
it simply means to apply the energy that we put forth in response
to the gospel, right? When God saves us, we start applying
ourselves. We're born again. And we start
applying ourselves to pursuing God, whether it's Bible study,
whether it's prayer, whether it's some devotional form of
life, whether it's witnessing to people, whether it's serving
in the church. That's our life. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And then our works ultimately culminate into some kind of pattern. He knows the life of the church. The term can be also understood
as fruit. I know your fruit, right? I know
your fruits. I know your fruits. I know what
the output or the response of your trusting me has resulted
in. I want to make sure I work this
so you guys can get this. Because the master that's speaking
to the church at Smyrna is speaking to me. And he's speaking to you.
And here's what he's saying. I know what you are doing. I
know the fruit that it's bearing. I know the character that it's
manifesting. I know what it looks like. I know what it looks like. It's
your light. I know your life. I know your response of love.
I know your expression of life. Remember what James 2 verse 20
says, faith without words is what? So child of God, what I
thank God for, what I thank the Lord Jesus for is that with every
church, what he says is, I know your words. I know the net effect
of your profession of faith. And then immediately goes into
the characteristics of the church at Smyrna when he brings up the
next word of which I want to press home for us because it's
so, so extremely important. When he says, I know your works,
I know your tribulation. Do you see that? I know your
tribulation. That's a very important term.
I know your tribulation is only used a few times in the book
of Revelation. It's used several other times throughout the Gospels.
This is a Greek term, thelepses. It's a very interesting word.
And fundamentally what it means is, I know the pressure that
you are under. I know the pressure that you
are under. Now follow this because this
is going to be very practical. I know your tribulation. I know
the pressure that you're under. The word means to be constrained.
It means to be pressed in. It means to be constrained on
all sides so that you are under now pressure. You know the difference
between a non-pressured situation and a pressured situation? The
difference between a non-pressured situation and a pressured situation
is how much of your flesh show up. So now I can wake you back
up now. You understand what I'm getting
at for the moment because the word tribulation is a very archaic
term for us We don't know how to we don't have to work with
that, but I'm talking about the pressure So so when he says I
understand the pressure under here's what he was talking about
I understand that as a child of God who lives publicly before
the world as a Christian once you do that the world starts
applying pressure on you and Do you understand the pressure
that it applies? It applies the pressure of a sort of consensus
of what's right over against what they know you believe to
be right. So the world is constantly pressuring you not to say, vocalize
or utter what you believe to be right. So you're constantly
being challenged for your biblical worldview. And then the pressure
is also on you in terms of people who live close to you and are
part of your life who also buy into a secular world ethic and
they now have kind of an influence on you and you have to be very
measured and very calculated about what you say because if
you don't think it through, you're gonna suffer the consequences
of what you say. Am I making some sense, saints?
This is the pressure. This is the pressure. And then
that pressure mounts in this way. that when you continue to
sustain a biblical worldview, when you hold to thus saith the
Lord, and they realize that the basic cultural and atmospheric
pressure does not change your ideology, now they start persecuting
you. Now they start attacking you.
Now you've got to go through the loss of things because of
your commitment to Christ. What does that mean? Now your
job is under question. Right? What does that mean? Now you might lose someone that
you care about greatly because you have discovered now that
as you have become more bold about Christ, they really don't
care for your Christ. So you lose relationships. In
this context in which the church at Smyrna was vocally and demonstrably
demonstrating their faith in Christ, they were being pressured
by losing their jobs, losing their homes. being ostracized. There was a working guild in
that day, like we have today when we are long Sherman, are
we working unions and we have to go to the hall. Y'all brothers
know what I'm talking about. Y'all sisters know what I'm talking
about. When you go to the hall, put your name up and you might be 335
on the list and you hope you hurry up and get down so you
can get your work. Well, when they discovered that you were
a Christian and you were on the workers guild, they'd scratch
your name out. You'd never get called. You never got called. And you know why they scratch
your name out? Because they worked for the beast. You'll learn more
of that as we go through the book. And because they work for
the beast, the beast had the kind of intelligentsia that we
have today. Oh, he doesn't have his ticket.
He doesn't have a certificate. He didn't burn incense to Caesar. We gonna get, we putting him,
he's number 5,793 and we only got 2000 jobs. You know what
that means? Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? This is called the lip-seize.
And our Master used this term in Matthew 7, verse 14, when
He said, narrow, narrow is the way. Constrained is the way. When a believer is actually walking
in Christ, you have very limited choices in this world. The world
does not love you. and it will shut you up to a
few choices. Pastor, what do you do when you
get shut up to a few choices? You adopt a biblical ethic. Do you know what that is? Godliness
with contentment is great gain. That I don't have to have all
of the accruements and material blessings and large homes and
status cars and status clothing that everyone else has. Because
remember again, remember I'm not defining myself by what I
have. I'm defining myself by whose
I am. My wealth is intrinsic. My wealth
is upward. My wealth is relational. It's
not substantial in the physical sense. This is good stuff. And the reason why it is, is
because I'm trying to make it practical to you. Because one
of the defaults we have in our thinking when we listen to the
Word of God, we really don't want the Word of God to make
application to us. But I'm here to tell you, the book of Revelation
applies to you and me right now, this day. Right now, this day. And so, he knew their work, he
knew their sufferings, and he knew their what? Poverty. Strategy
of the devil. Poverty. That's Hebrews 1034,
the spoiling of your goods. That's what the writer to the
Hebrews said. Remember when God illuminated your understanding,
brought you into a knowledge of the gospel, you were all happy
and you thought people were going to receive the gospel that you
had now come to receive. And then next thing you know,
you're losing your job, your house and everything else. You
took the spoiling of your goods as a token that God loved you
and that you were one of his people. That's a good day, isn't
it? Because I don't think Anybody in the house right now, remember
a day when you said, hallelujah, I'm losing my house for Jesus'
sake. I want you to hear what he says
in this context. It's interesting. He says, I know your works. I
know your tribulation. I know the pressure that you
have been constrained and pressed into and made to live a narrow
life, a narrow life. And I know your poverty, but
You are rich. Now look at the Lord. He did
what David asked him to do a thousand years earlier. Remember the word
unto your servant upon which you have caused me to hope. This
is my comfort in my affliction. You know what our master told
the church at Smyrna? You are rich. Now saints, when God calls you
rich, just accept it. Do you understand that? Now there
are massive, massive implicatory blessings in that that we could
take the time to pull out. But I simply want to say this.
He was saying that they were rich because they were rich in
faith. James chapter 2, I believe it's
verse 5, underscores this. Look at it with me. I just want
you to see this briefly. And again, I understand. I understand
that you and I don't live Right now, in a circumstance wherein
we are tested in our faith around the removal or diminishing or
separation between us and our material goods. I understand
that this is a bit removed from you because you guys, really
all of you here, you're kings. You guys are queens. You and
I live extravagant lives compared to the rest of the world. It's
true. We live extravagantly and I don't
ever want us at grace to issue the false complaint to our God
that he hasn't been good to us. Don't ever issue that complaint
to God. And I would encourage you not to overly struggle with
the idea of why would it be that God would give us the kind of
blessings that he does in America? And then other saints around
the world go through what they go through. Well, if he doesn't
give you that revelation, don't worry about it. Did you get that? You got other stuff to do. Don't struggle with, how come
not me, Lord? Remember when the Lord Jesus
had recovered the disciples from their apostasy? We're dealing
with Greek terms this week. Apostolos over against apostasy.
And we are recognizing that apostasy is a departure from the faith
and abandonment of the faith. Well, that's essentially what
the apostles did when the Lord was crucified. They were scattered.
Remember that? Do you remember that? Do you remember how they
went back fishing? I mean, they went back to that.
They went back to In-N-Out burgers. They went back to McDonald's.
They went back to Jack in the Box. They went back fishing when
God had called them to preach the gospel. That was a bold-faced
apostasy. Do you hear me? They were done. And our master and his love waited
at the shore till they came in. Because see, with that kind of
work, you got to come back home at some point. Because it just
don't pay good. And when they got to the shore,
remember, did you catch anything? No. Because you can't catch anything
being outside of the will of God. Do you remember that? And so our master bringing them
into shore and reaffirming their commission to preach the gospel,
remember how they all got excited about dying for Christ? And then
Peter, I think it was Peter, he said, Master, what about John? Is John going to die for you
too? Master say what is that to do with you? Don't don't that's
John's business. I love it Because he didn't tell
him yes or no. He simply said that's not your
business how the church goes through what it goes through
in Europe or Africa or the Middle East and what it goes through
in the West or in America It's got sovereign purpose And our
job is to do what he has called us to do here and pray for our
brothers and sisters in those other places. Now, if you're
not content with that, we'll give you a plane ticket. We'll
give you one. And I promise you, if that's
not God's will for you, you'll be back real quick. Because it
takes grace to do somebody else's job. Remember, stay in your what? Stay in your lane. He the one
that started this race. And he's covering all the lanes.
Is he not covering all the lanes? And we have a lane to run here
in the West. We have a lane to run here in
the West. If I was to build that ethic, it has a lot to do with
what God has given us in terms of resources so we can bless
our poor brothers in other countries. Yes, sir. And the church has
been doing that well. By the way, we've been doing
that well as a Western church. We give them lots of things.
We have a lot of technology, a lot of goods, and we take care
of our poor brothers and sisters around the world as much as we
possibly can. But remember, that's your job.
Your job is not to hoard up material things. It's not your job. Your job is to make sure that
you live a balanced life that respects your Savior's providence
and your tenure, but make sure you are giving. It is far more
blessed to what? Give than it is to receive. You're
going to die a happy Christian when you're giving stuff away.
Besides, you done outgrew most of those clothes you're wearing.
I know you're trying to still hold on to them, but they're
a little bit tight. You ain't losing that weight.
You're happy right where you are. Until the tribulation comes
here, just give it up with your healthy self. Listen to what
James chapter 2 verses 4 and 5 says. I'm going to start at
verse 1 and go through 5. Here's the ethic. My brethren,
have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,
with respective persons. For if there come unto your assembly
a man with a gold ring, wealthy, and goodly apparel, wealthy,
and there come in also a poor man in vile or poor raiment,
poor, and you have respect to him that wears the gay clothing,
this is a bad word, and say unto him, sit thou here in a good
place. And they say to the poor, stand
thou there or sit here under my footstool. All right, now,
don't go. I hear you. But tell the truth,
have you messed up like that? Have you paid respect to certain
persons because they met certain ostensive requirements of appearance
and decor that you expect? And someone else comes along
and they don't quite look right, they don't dress right, and they
sure enough don't smell right. And see how you sent them to
other folks? or how you circumvented them. It happens in the church
all the time. It happens in the church all
the time where folks think they own the seat that they're sitting
in. You know that seat you're sitting in? You actually think
you own that seat. And you are upset on a Sunday
morning when you come in. Usher. Church folks, something else.
Church folks, something else. That's why I love to see folks
that I used to see always sitting in the search box, sit way over
in the north end. Sometimes just go way over to
the nose bleaches. Like I got some folks way, way
back there. I love them. They generally over here, they
way in the nose. See, I know it's uncomfortable,
but you can hear the message today. Back in your regular seat,
you asleep on me. I know. I know how this goes.
I know how people do. They go find a spot, they settle
in, and they just sink into that seat and just disappear on the
brother. Just disappear. Just disappear. To the last five minutes of the
message. I know how you do. In our old church, because the
building was small enough, I could walk around. It would be a distraction
for me to go way over on the back end and pop you up. Long
ago, they used to have these long sticks. Y'all know how.
Put the balls on it, flop you on your head, wake you up. Listen to what he says. And you
have respect to the one that wears the gay clothing. Verse
four, are you not impartial in yourselves and are become judges
of evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren,
have not God chosen the poor of this world? That is a fundamental
aspect of the ministry of the word. By and large, poor people
come to Christ because providence has prepared the heart to recognize
that it actually does not have anything and that if it's going
to have anything, God's going to have to do it for them. This
is true. As our master said, it is difficult
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And the challenge
for you and me is to make sure that we don't ostensibly enter
into the kingdom of God and then become rich. Do you understand? Because the philosophy of the
rich man is I can do it myself. And that's the only kind of peers
I want to have around me are people that are like me. But
you forgot that when God saved your wretched soul, you were
naked and destitute, that you were poor, that you were blind,
that you didn't have a thing, that when God called you by his
grace, you were absolutely bankrupting yourself. You forgot that. Hear
what I'm saying? That the person that's coming
in looking raggedy, smelling raggedy, That's what you were
10 times over in your soul when God drew you by his grace and
accepted you just the way you were. Our master is aware of
this. He's aware of this when he says
you're rich. Listen to how James puts it. He says he saves the
poor of the world, rich in what? And heirs of what? The kingdom
of God, which he hath promised to them that what? Boy, what
a text. Because the text says that the
people who faithfully continue in Christ, like the church of
Smyrna is, in spite of a lack of material blessings, is an
indication of their what for him? Love for him. And theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. That's the whole point. Let's
go back to our text now. Begin to wrap this up. He's speaking
to his church. A word of assurance. He's speaking
to his church. A word of comfort. And let me
remind you as I begin to wrap this message up that the church
at Smyrna will be one of only two churches out of the seven
that will receive no condemnation. He knows what you are going through
and more. He knows your poverty. And he
knows that's a strategy of the devil to take your goods. You are rich in faith if you
are a child of God. You believe that, right? You're
rich in faith. You possess in Jesus Christ,
ladies and gentlemen, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
You have reserved in heaven an inheritance that's undefiled,
uncorruptible, waiting for you to get there. You do believe
that, right? The other thing that he recognizes also, which
is a note I'm just gonna touch on, and he'll pick up again when
we get to the next couple of churches. He says, and I know
them, And I know the blasphemy of them, which say they are Jews
and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. You see that? So we're
getting a marker by the spirit of God in the church at Smyrna
about a prominent problem of which for time's sake, I'm not
going to develop it, but I'll just call your attention to it.
There were two prominent entities that were the chief culprit for
persecuting the church at that time. One of them was Judaism. Judaism was a strong opponent
to Christianity, particularly in first century Rome. This is why the term the synagogue
of Satan, the synagogue of Satan is going to be used twice. This
is why the phraseology, I know they say they are Jews, but they
are liars and are not. This terminology, our Lord is
speaking to Christians because one of the main proponents to
the persecution that they experienced were from Jews. The Jewish religion,
as we are learning in the book of Acts, right, is the primary
entity or antichrist system opposing the gospel because of the inherent
claims of the gospel and the inherent consequences of it over
against Judaism. So he says, I know them who are
speaking against you. And they call themselves Jews,
but they are what not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. Now
the exegesis of that statement right there, those two phrases
right there, would lead us to believe that Christ recognizes
synagogues all over Asia Minor, as well as Rome, and as well
as Palestine, wherein people are ostensibly saying they are
true Jews and that they worship Jehovah, but in fact, because
they reject the gospel, they're not true Jews at all. Are you
guys following me? To be picked up later. And so
we go to point number four. Here's his exhortation to them.
Do not fear the momentary suffering. You see it? Watch this. Fear none of those things which
you shall suffer. It's interesting. He's giving
them the command or the imperative of what not to do before he tells
them what they're going to go through. And then he explains
it. Here he is. Behold, the devil
shall cast some of you into what? So he was actually forewarning
the church at Smyrna of the increase of the persecution or the lipsies
or the pressure that they would go through that it would abound
to the point where they would suffer more. See, here's a here's
a challenge. Here it is. You and I suffer
a little bit and we're wondering when the suffering is going to
stop. And then the Lord tells you, no, it's not going to stop.
It's actually going to get worse. It's going to get so bad that
you're going to die for me. At least he's telling us up front,
isn't he? Are you hearing me? In his care
for us, he's telling us, don't hold to the vain notion that
somehow Providence is going to change the circumstance and everything
is going to be well. No, watch this. Sometimes you're
going to lose that job. Sometimes that spouse is going
to actually divorce you. Sometimes it's terminal cancer. It's not always a reversal. It's
not always a correction. The difficulty can increase and
it can terminate into death. He did say this though. He said,
you shall suffer. The devil will cast some of you
into prison that you may be what? Tried. Parasmus, the Greek term.
Parasmus. And it means really to be purified.
It's an old Hebraic concept of the gold being placed in the
furnace. And isn't that what trials are about? Purging us. And then he gives us a very comforting
term. Watch this. You shall have tribulation 10,000
years. Is that what it said? 10 days. So now I'm giving you
a measure, a scale. 10 years is a long time to go
through trouble. 10 days is not. Did you get that? 10 days is just not that bad.
I mean, it's trouble, but it's not that bad. You know what he's
saying? The sufferings of this present
time. are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be
revealed in us when Jesus comes. Our Master is saying, compare
to eternity with me. This little period of time that
you're going through is nothing but 10 days. The number 10 being
again that symbolic number of completion, the way the Old Testament
sets it up. Just go through the suffering,
it won't last long. It's a word of comfort. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? This is remarkable because you
know what? You know what this means? This means our master
could trust them. I learned this years ago by older
pastors. They would say, if you're going
through trouble, unusual troubles that other people don't go through,
it simply means God can trust you. Pocket that. Because some of
us can only go through certain things before we completely collapse. Man, we ain't no good as a testimony. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Others of us can endure more philipses, more pressure, more
constraining, because he can trust us. He's already tempered
us through trials incrementally. And we've gotten used to suffering
for Christ's sake, and he's made us stronger in the faith. Am
I making some sense? And so now you can endure hardship
as a good soldier for the Lord Jesus Christ, because he has
built that into your character. That's Romans 5, right? Tribulation
works patience, patience works experience, experience works
hope, hope does not come ashamed because of the Holy Ghost working
in you to produce character. So now you can take the hits
for Christ like Job did. Did Job take the hits? And so
some of us can take the hit, some of us can't. But if you
are taking hits for Jesus and you are suffering things that
are just inextricable, unexplainable, God has blessed you. See, when
I watch this, it says, because you don't know it, but people
are watching you. They're watching you as you go
through your trial. And they're saying, let me see
the God of his glory. the God of her glory. Let me
see how well they walk with God through the valley of Baca. Let
me see if they are the sheep of the Lord in the midst of the
valley. Let me see if he's walking with
them and keeping them in the midst of that trouble. And that
often is the means by which people are brought to Christ. This is
good. Do not fear the momentary suffering.
Let me go on to point number five. This is important because
he encourages us to endure it. He'll cast you into prison. You'll
be tried. You're going to have tribulation. Be faithful unto
death. Isn't that what he says? Well,
listen to what number five says, because he's a rewarder and he's
a personal rewarder. Be thou faithful unto death.
And here's the last line. We're almost done here. And I
will give you a crown of life. You see that? And listen to what
our master is saying. And we'll shut it down here.
He's saying to the church at Smyrna, it is my providential
and sovereign purpose for you guys to bear witness to my grace
as martyrs. So Ignatius was martyred at about
108 AD. And then Polycott was martyred
in about 155 AD. And then many others were martyred
under the persecution that took place in the first and second
century AD. And they're martyred them. was glorious. The testimony
in the archives of them suffering for Christ is a great testimony
of the grace of God. Now, Saints, once again, remember,
not all the churches went through this, but they did. What caused
them to be able to stand? Christ spoke to them. What caused
them to be able to stand? He told them that he was the
Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and
the end. What caused them to stand? He said he would be with
them through it. What caused them to stand? He
says, be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown life. Are you hearing me? And their
faithfulness indicated that they believed God. Now mark this. He is the personal rewarder. Can you imagine, child of God,
you facing the guillotine, you facing the stocks, you facing
burn, you're brought before the courts, you're being made to
be guilty of capital punishment for capital punishment because
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our master says, go through
that tape, break that yellow tape, break it, and you will
meet me there personally. And I will give you a crown of
life personally. I will crown you personally with
having run your race and finish your race and have it accomplish
your purpose. I will be there to give you the
crown person. And this is not a diadem, a ruling
crown. This here is what we call the
Stefanos crown, a wreath of completion, like the person that runs the
race and what our master was saying to the church at Smyrna,
you finish the race when you die for me. And remember what
Paul said in second Timothy chapter four, listen, I'm ready for the
Lord to give me my crown. I fought a good fight. I finished
my course. I've run my race. I'm ready. Paul was ready to cross that
finish line and meet the Savior. And you know what else he said?
And all those who also love his appearing. So see, sometimes
we have to go through things, saints, for the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we can be sure of this. That when we go through them,
he will be with us. And when we cross that finish
line, he will be there to reward us with the crown of life. And finally, he that hath ears,
let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. The one
that overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death. Do you see
that? Three points in your outline.
Men may condemn you. but God will not. Do you see
that? Men may condemn you, but God
will not. See, the goal of the devil is to get you to be afraid
of suffering and dying for him. And in the context of persecuting
you, he wants you to feel as if you are rejected of God and
guilty. You and I are sinners. Are we
not sinners? But we're saved by God's grace. Are we not saved
by God's grace? Are we not objects of his love
and mercy? Are we not justified freely by his grace? Are we not
therefore then the righteousness of God in Christ? When God looks
at us, does he not see Christ himself? Does not God view us
as having already triumphed, already overcome, already in
glory? then why would I hear the voice
that would assert that because I'm going through trouble, I'm
not accepted with God? The world may condemn you, but
God does not. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those that are in Christ Jesus. In fact, your condemnation is
done with the moment you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words, yea, heareth
the words of him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall
never come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. Do you believe that promise?
Do you believe that promise? That's what he's saying. And
saints, when your name is written in the Lamb's book of life, the
lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world, whose
blood wrote on the ledger your name, because he chose you in
Christ. You are a citizen of heaven.
Nothing can erase your citizenship. Nothing. Nothing. In fact, all
your death will do is usher you into the blessed, blessed, blessed
state of permanent and eternal glory. Amen and amen.